Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota, the skills-training nonprofit for the unemployed and disadvantaged, also is one fast-growing retailer. Retail sales, which help fund the nonprofit mission, grew 23 percent to $57.6 million last year.
And in November, St. Paul-based Goodwill and Wellington Management expect to open Goodwill's first Minneapolis store, its 34th retail location, at the site of a vacant Perkins restaurant at 60th Street and Nicollet Avenue S. It took several months to gain neighborhood and city approvals for what will be Goodwill's first two-level store.
"They've been looking for a Minneapolis site for five years," said CEO Steve Wellington, who built a Goodwill store in Coon Rapids several years ago. "The city was cooperative, the neighbors helpful and we're not getting any public subsidy."
Wellington paid more than $1 million to acquire the dormant building and will spend $2.5 million-plus to build the new store and lease to Goodwill. The store, designed by DJR Architecture, will include a small parking lot, elevator and drive-through drop-off for donated clothing, furniture, electronics, housewares and toys. Thrift retailers, including ARC Value Village and Salvation Army, generally grew during the recession and took space from retrenching retailers in suburban malls.
Big savings at otter tail's Big Stone
Upgrading the Big Stone coal power plant near Milbank, S.D., to meet air emissions standards is costing a lot less than projected, majority owner Otter Tail Power Co. said last week.
The Fergus Falls, Minn., utility that serves 129,000 customers in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota said the construction project, which began last month, is now expected to cost $405 million, a reduction of $86 million, or 17.5 percent, from the original budget.
In a regulatory filing, the company attributed the expected savings to prudent design changes, low bids in a buyer's market, in-house project management and a lowered contingency reserve.
The retrofit of 475-megawatt plant will bring it in compliance with federal regulations, including those designed to reduce haze over Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area.